Tag Archives: Abortion debate

Fifty-five percent of reproductive-age U.S. women lived in an anti-choice state in 2011, up from 31% in 2000, according to a Guttmacher Institute policy analysis.

The increase is the result of a shift in the abortion policy landscape at the state level, including a record number of abortion restrictions enacted in 2011.

“In 2000, the country was more evenly divided: nearly a third of women lived in states solidly hostile to abortion rights, slightly more than a third in states supportive of abortion rights and close to a third in middle-ground states,” says Rachel Benson Gold, Guttmacher’s director of policy analysis. “By 2011, however, more than half of women of reproductive age lived in hostile states. This growth came largely at the expense of the states in the middle. Only one in 10 women lived in a middle-ground state by 2011.”

Todd Stave, the landlord who owns the property in which abortion provider LeRoy Carhart operates his practice, became the subject of egregious anti-choice bullying recently. Protesters posted his personal information online, asking people to call Mr. Stave and urge him to stop renting to Dr. Carhart. They also set up shop outside his daughter’s middle school during back-to-school night, flying a banner that read “Todd Stave: Please Stop the Child Killing” and included his phone number.

Mr. Stave decided to give anti-choicers a taste of their own medicine. He started taking down the names and phone numbers of the people who called him and had volunteers call those people back to thank them for their thoughts and tell them he would not be evicting Dr. Carhart. (Legally, he couldn’t evict the doctor even if he wanted to.)

Mr. Stave also set up a website that responds to anti-choice protesters and offers resources for victims of their bullying.